


Persistence Hunter

by cylobaby27



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Batfam Week 2018, Batfam Week: Trapped, Gen, Language, discussion of attempted suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-17 19:48:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15468735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cylobaby27/pseuds/cylobaby27
Summary: Tim has been acting oddly lately. Damian is determined to get to the bottom of it.Batfam Week 2018 - Prompt: Trapped





	Persistence Hunter

It was rare for Tim and Damian to end up sharing breakfast.

Even with patrols, their sleep schedules rarely lined up. Tim stayed up so late that the sky was often lightening to gray before he finally went to bed. Meanwhile, Damian tended to sleep as soon as he was back from patrol, and then woke in the early hours of the day to do…whatever he did.

Tim wasn’t sure. It probably either involved rescuing baby animals or organizing the slow, embarrassing demise of an enemy. He didn’t want to know.

This morning, though, they were sitting across the dining room table from each other in awkward silence. Dick had been there for the beginning of the meal, when Tim had just been arriving, but he left to join Cass in her morning exercise.

Once Alfred had served Tim his usual mushroom omelet and cup of black coffee, Tim had been left to eat under Damian’s caustic gaze.

Unlike Tim, Damian wasn’t eating a traditional Western breakfast. Instead of having one main entree, he was nibbling from a handful of small bowls scattered around his plate. There were walnuts in one, fresh feta in another, and what looked like some kind of savory yogurt.

He was only picking at the food, like he wasn’t as desperate as usual to escape Tim’s presence. Maybe he was being slow because of Tim. Damian hated to let Tim run him out of any room. He still saw the Manor as his by right, and he did his best to make Tim feel like an interloper.

Tim didn’t fight it as much as he once had. Now that Damian was less homicidal, he was probably right—he was Bruce’s heir, and no neighbor’s kid, no matter how helpful, was going to disrupt that.

Instead, Tim ignored his presence, flipping through the business section of the _Gotham Gazette_ on his tablet. He frowned at a small note on the third page, tucked between news about a scandal in Star City and an op-ed about the Atlantis economy.

Tim glanced up at Damian, and then back down to his tablet. “Looks like LexCorp is trying to merge with a glass company,” he commented. “They’ve been doing a lot of these small deals lately. Looks like they’re going to have an even bigger holding in Metropolis than ever.”

“ _Tt_. And I care why?” Damian asked.

Tim hummed. “Well, if this is one of Luthor’s plans, it’s better to nip it in the bud before Superman—or Superboy—has to step in.”

“We don’t work in Metropolis without an invite,” Damian pointed out. “Father would throw a fit. And I don’t want to team up with you.”

“I’m not talking about masks. Wayne Enterprises tends to stay out of Metropolis, but maybe there’s a way to interfere without being obvious…” Tim waited for Damian to jump in with an idea.

“I’m twelve. I don’t work with the company,” Damian reminded him.

“Well, not yet,” Tim admitted.

“Drake,” Damian said, putting down his fork. “What are you doing? This is the fourth time this month that you’ve attempted to engage me on business matters.”

“You’ve been counting?”

“I don’t usually pay such close attention to your inanities, but I found this behavior unexpected,” Damian said.

“What, me bothering to try to talk to you?”

“I’m referring to you attempting to instruct me about the running of Wayne Enterprises.” Damian stared at him, and Tim started to understand what the criminals they interrogated felt like. Damian had a cold, sharp gaze that made it seem as though he could look straight through you. What did he see when he looked at Tim?

“It’s my job. Of course I talk about it sometimes. Besides, Wayne Enterprises is what funds our entire operation. Don’t you think you should understand the business?”

“You don’t attempt these conversations with Grayson, Brown, Cain, _or_ Todd.”

Tim rolled his eyes. “Why the hell would I try to talk to Jason about stocks and mergers?”

“My point is that you’re not just making idle conversation. You’re attempting to set me up as your successor to the business.” Tim blinked, and Damian’s gaze intensified. “Are you planning on attempting to commit suicide again?”

Tim’s jaw dropped, and he gaped at Damian for several heartbeats. Blood was rushing in his ears, making the quiet dining room seem overwhelmingly chaotic. “I… You…” Tim stood up. He needed out of this. “I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

“Sit down, or I’ll have to report this conversation to Father.” Tim stayed standing. “Or Grayson.”

Fuck. Dick would flip. Tim sat back down.

If anything, Damian grew even more intense. “So there is something to worry about.”

“What?”

“If it were nothing, you would have just left the room,” Damian pointed out.

Tim let out a shaky laugh. “Or I just didn’t want to listen to you anymore.”

“Drake,” Damian said, as serious as ever. “You cannot foist control of Wayne Enterprises onto me so that your path is clear to kill yourself.”

“I’m not going to try to kill myself,” Tim snapped. “Stop saying that. You don’t know anything.”

“You think I haven’t done research into my brothers? It’s masked in your medical records—was that you, Gordon, or Father who convinced them to keep the reality of the thing a secret?—but I am perfectly capable of reading between the lines. Accidental prescription overdose? You? Even at your most tired, you’re capable of calculating appropriate dosage.”

“You hacked into my medical records?” Tim asked. “Why would you bother?”

“There was so much I did not know when I arrived. Once I realized you weren’t going away as I’d hoped, I decided I needed to catch up with what I had missed. I looked into everyone’s records.”

“That’s creepy.”

“I was being thorough,” Damian said, though for the first time in the conversation so far, his razor-sharp demeanor slipped into something more defensive. “Everyone else was operating with a certain standard of knowledge about each other. You all knew each other for much longer. You had shared…intimacies I had no expectation of you ever sharing with me. To understand you, I needed to find out things another way.”

“You’re a sociopath. If someone doesn’t tell you something, it’s probably because they don’t want you to know.”

“Father would say that that is simply an obstacle to be negotiated.”

“Not when it comes to your family! Fuck,” Tim said, running his hands through his hair. “Would you want me to look for footage of your time with the League? With your mother and grandfather?”

“No,” Damian snarled, and then took a controlling breath. “You wouldn’t be able to find anything anyway.”

“You were able to hack my files, and you’re about as computer literate as Alfred. You don’t think _I_ could find information on _you_?” Tim shook his head. “I knew I should have hidden those records myself,” he added to himself. “Bruce said he took care of it, and I…”

“I imagine it was a difficult memory,” Damian said.

“Not as difficult as it sounded like saying that was for you.”

Damian sniffed. “You know I am not skilled at emotional conversations.”

“Then why the hell did you trap me into one? I never asked to talk about this with you. I can still leave.”

“I can do what’s necessary,” Damian said. “Hacking files or…sensitive conversations. I can do what’s needed. This seemed necessary.”

“Because I tried to talk to you about the company? Jesus.”

“Because your unusual behavior alarmed me, and I wanted confirmation from you before I involved Father.”

“Involve Bruce…? Why would you do that?” Tim shook his head. “Scratch that. Why wouldn’t you do that? Why even try to handle this on your own? You don’t even like me.”

“We may not get along all the time, but I’m not interested in your death,” Damian snapped. “I thought I was the best candidate to handle this discussion. I’m the one who has become aware of the situation, and I’m less likely to become…compromised than Father or Grayson. Father has a similar difficulty with emotional issues, and Grayson would likely overreact and mishandle the situation. I didn’t want anyone to scare you into rash action.”

“Well, I’m glad that you didn’t bring this up to anyone else. Damian, I’m not planning on…hurting myself. I'm not where I was back then.”

Damian scoffed. “Forgive me if I don’t take your word for it. I’ve done research in the past few weeks. It’s common for people to deny their plans when confronted unexpectedly.”

“I’m being seri—You Googled how to talk someone out of suicide?”

With a shrug that wasn’t as casual as Damian clearly wanted it to seem, he said, “It’s an important skill for our line of work either way.”

Tim shook his head. “You’re not wrong there, but you didn’t need to do it this time.”

“You’ve been trying to teach me how to take over Wayne Enterprises in your stead. You cherish that position. The only reason you would even consider letting me take over is if you were not planning on being here to do it yourself.”

“Or I have a half a fucking brain and realized that my title at Wayne Enterprises is going to go the same way as the Robin mantle. What’s the phrase you always use? The blood heir? As pretentious as your phrasing is, you’re not wrong.” Tim shrugged. “You’ve stabilized in the last year. In the beginning, Bruce wouldn’t have considered handing you the CEO job, but now that you’ve proven you can almost act like a mature adult, there’s no reason for him not to. It’s your birthright.” He sighed. “So, no, I’m not planning on killing myself. I've not been that depressed in a long time, and I have the resources to help if I were to get there again. I just wanted to prepare you for when you take over. It’s a big job, and I’ve put a lot of work into it. I want to make sure you know what you’re getting into and don’t drop the ball.”

“You truly are an idiot, Drake.”

“What did I do now?”

“I know that when I arrived, I had certain…beliefs about my place in this family. I’ve been here for several years now, and I learned quickly that the rest of you were not simply surrogates Father had collected while subconsciously waiting for me to arrive. The rest of you have your places in this family as well.”

“Thank you, I think,” Tim said.

“The cowl of Batman will be mine someday,” Damian continued, “but I don’t need to heft the entirety of Bruce Wayne’s legacy. I was trained to be a warrior, not a businessman. I have no interest in the company.”

Tim blinked. “You…don’t?”

“The company is a means to an end.”

“No, it isn’t,” Tim snapped. “Wayne Enterprises does good work in Gotham. We support infrastructure projects, work on the cutting edge of technology, and bring business and commerce into this city. You think going around and beating up criminals will save this city? There has to be a daylight approach as well. Wayne Enterprises employs people who would otherwise be jobless and desperate. It has scholarships for kids whose potential might get wasted otherwise. It’s not just there to pay for your Robin costume.”

“See?” Damian asked. “You’re the only one of us who knows or cares about the company. I’m not interested beyond the bottom line. You are. I have no desire to sit behind a desk. You practically live at a computer.”

“So basically you just want me to keep the job because you don’t want to do it,” Tim said.

“Precisely,” Damian said. “I’m relieved that this was just a bout of insecurity rather than a dip back into suicidality. I’m glad we had this talk.”

“You’re such an asshole,” Tim said, throwing a napkin across the table. Damian dodged it, of course. Shaking his head, Tim added, “But thanks. For checking on me.”

Damian nodded solemnly. “You are, after all, my brother.”

“I’m going to seal my medical files, and anything else you didn’t manage to find,” Tim told him as he stood. “Next time you want to know something about me, you’ll have to ask like a normal human being.” He smiled and shrugged. “I might even tell you.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on [Tumblr](http://starknjarvis27.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
